Anna O. Law

Anna Law holds the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights. Her publications appear in both social science journals and law journals and investigate the interaction between law, legal institutions and politics. Her first book, The Immigration Battle in American Courts (Cambridge University Press 2010), examined the role of the federal judiciary in U.S. immigration policy, and the institutional evolution of the Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals. Law is a former program analyst at the bipartisan, blue-ribbon United States Commission on Immigration Reform. She has shared her expertise with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security and National Science Foundation. In 2007, she appeared as a recurring narrator with other academic experts and two Supreme Court justices in the PBS award winning documentary. Her current projects include a second book is on immigration federalism and slavery, and National Science Foundation funded research.

Education:

Areas of Expertise:

The interaction between law, legal institutions and politics; U.S. constitutional law and U.S. immigration law and policy.

Books and Publications

Book Review of Kunal Parker?s Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600-2000 (Cambridge University Press 2015) for the Law and Politics Book Review. (Available at: http://www.lpbr.net/2016/05/making-foreigners-immigration-and.html) May 2016. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2016

"Lunatics, Idiots, Paupers, and Negro Seamen -- Immigration Federalism and the Early American Republic." Studies in American Political Development 28, October: 107-28. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2014

Review of The Sovereign Citizenship: Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic, by Patrick Weil. Law and Politics Book Review, sponsored by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2013

Law, Anna and Daniel Tichenor. "Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in American Politics." The Oxford Handbook on Racial and Ethnic Politics in America. Oxford University Press. Under contract. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2012

Williams, Margaret, and Anna Law. "Understanding Judicial Decision Making in Immigration at the U.S Courts of Appeals." The Justice System Journal 33.1: 97-119. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2012

"How the Internal Adjudicative Procedures of the Ninth Circuit Can Disadvantage Pro Se and Political Asylum Claimants." Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 25: 647-79, Spring. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2011

The Immigration Battle in American Courts. Cambridge University Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2010

"In Search of a Methodology and Other Tales From the Academic Crypt." Researching Migration: Stories From the Field. Eds. Sherrie Kossoudji, Louis DeSipop and Manuel Garcia y Griego. New York: Social Science Research Council. Available at: http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/42451838-264A-DE11-AFAC-001CC477EC70/ (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2007

"Race, Ethnicity, and National Origins in Public Policy -- When Should It Matter?" Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 10: 71-76. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 1996

Creative Work

Expert commentator. The Supreme Court is a four-part documentary produced by PBS and its New York affiliate WNET. It chronologically examines the history and development of the U.S. Supreme Court through the eyes of famous justices and cases. The series features reenactments of key moments in Supreme Court history and interviews with academics, Chief Justice John Roberts and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. I appeared as one of the four "core narrators" in on-camera interviews in episodes 1, 2 and 3. The shows aired nationwide on PBS channels on Jan. 31 and Feb. 7, 2007. The series has won numerous awards, including those from the International Documentary Association and the American Bar Foundation's Silver Gavel award, and was favorably reviewed in newspapers across the country. April 2004 - January 2007. 2004

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

National Science Foundation grant #1556551 of $79,497, a collaborative project with Co-PI Karen Musalo of UC Hastings College of Law: "How do U.S. Immigration Courts Decide Gender-Based Asylum Claims?" (Grants and Fellowships) 2016

Faculty Fellowship, Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, "Does the Constitution Guarantee Freedom from Government Tyranny and Despotism?" Brooklyn College. (Grants and Fellowships) 2014

Faculty Research Fellowship, University Research Council, to support professional copyediting services for book manuscript submission, summer. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008

Faculty Fellowship, Center for Latino Research, DePaul University, for "Latin American Immigration in the U.S. Courts of Appeals" The fellowship grants a two-course teaching release and the assistance of a research assistant. 2007-08. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007

Faculty Research Fellowship, University Research Council, to support conducting interviews with judges at the Courts of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California, summer. (Awards and Honors) 2007

Competitive Research Leave, University Research Council (DePaul has no sabbatical system, but we are eligible to apply for leave at reduced pay): winter and spring quarters, 2012-13 (declined); fall and winter quarters, 2006-07. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006

Faculty Research Fellowship, University Research Council, to support data collection at Immigration and Naturalization Service Archives in Washington, D.C., summer. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005

Visiting Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California at San Diego, 2002-03. (Grants and Fellowships) 2002

"The Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798 as a Window to 19th Century Immigration Federalism", Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL. April 16-19, 2015. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015

"The Federal Courts' Roles in Immigration Policy." Public Policy Institute and Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Austin, Texas: March 25. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011

"Policymaking at the Margins: The U.S. Courts of Appeals and Immigration." Juniata College. Merkelsberg, Pa., June. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010

Panel organizer and chair, "Author Meets Critics: Barry Friedman's 'The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution.'" Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, April 21-25. (Panel selected to be recorded for an association podcast). (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010

"Back to the Future: Reassessing Immigration and Federalism through Mayor of New York v Miln (1837)." The Wisconsin Constitutional Theory Discussion Group, aka "The Constitutional Schmooze" University of Wisconsin School of Law. Madison, Wis., Oct. 2-3. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009

"Interstitial Policy Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals." American Political Science Association. Toronto, Sept. 2-6. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009

Law, Anna and Margaret Williams. "Understanding Judicial Decision Making in Immigration Cases at the U.S. Courts of Appeals." Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, April 1-4. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009

"Teaching Immigration" roundtable. Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, April 3-6. (This panel was selected by the association to be recorded for a podcast.) (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2008

External reviewer, Journal of Law and Courts.(Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2012

Member, Prize Committee, American Political Science Association, Federalism Section, Martha Derthick Book Prize Committee. The prize awarded for the best book on federalism published in the last 10 years. (Professional Leadership: Committee Service) 2012

External reviewer, American Journal of Political Science, 2010-11. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2011

Faculty instructor. Law and Society Association pre-conference programming for graduate students preceding the annual convention. Workshops taught: "Arizona as a Microcosm of National Immigration Debates," "Dissertation Feedback for Students Writing Migration Dissertations" and "The Social Science Job Market." Chicago, May 24-26. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2010

Member, Advisory Panel, National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science Division. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2010

Section chair, Law and Jurisprudence, Midwest Political Science Association. Congressional staff briefing. "An Assessment of the Effect of Caseload Pressures on the U.S. Courts of Appeals." (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2010

United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington D.C., Sept. 1. (A research presentation to the senior legislative counsels to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that draft immigration and court reform legislation) (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2010

Research assistant for Dr. Daniel J. Tichenor. Researched President Lyndon B. Johnson and his staff's roles in immigration issues for Tichenor's book Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America (Princeton University Press, 2002). Utilized historical documents and audiotapes in the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library Archive to trace legislative history and action surrounding the passage of the landmark Immigration Act of 1965. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 1997

Pedagogical Achievements

"Roundtable on the Teaching of American Constitutionalism" panel. Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, April 12-15. 2012

Supervision of undergraduate research assistants: Supervised five students for a total of 11 quarters. Taught the students the logic of inference, how to create a random sample of legal opinion from Lexis/Nexis, how to code the legal opinions for various information (e.g., sex and country of origin of the alien, name of the judges), and how to summarize the data in narrative form after looking for patterns in the results. The students were either paid through a DePaul Undergraduate Research Assistant grant or received academic credit for experiential learning for the work. 2003

Community Activities

External grant reviewer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Science and Technology Directorate, (2007) White Paper Review for Border Studies Center Project. Reviewed seven white paper proposals from university teams that proposed designs and components for a Border Studies Center. The proposals were competing for a $3 million renewable grand for such a center that would combine the study of new technologies to address national security concerns with the furthering of scholars' and policy makers' understanding of migration patterns and incentives. 2007

Other Professional Activities

Chair. "Shaping the National with the Local: New Perspectives on State-Federal Relations in American Immigration History" Organization of American Historians Annual Convention. Omni Hotel, Providence, RI. April 7-10, 2016 2016

Program analyst, United States Commission on Immigration Reform, Washington, D.C., 1994-96. Researched and analyzed policy issues in support of the work of the blue ribbon, bipartisan congressional commission. The "Jordan Commission" (named after Chair Barbara Jordan) was charged with making policy recommendations to Congress and the White House on legal, illegal and temporary immigration. 1994